COMPUTER EXPERT TRAPPED BY THE INTERNET

COMPUTER expert Vincent Tabak’s constant use of the internet to keep tabs on the police investigation and find ways of covering his tracks led to his downfall.

Despite his vast knowledge, he could not hide his internet activity from police IT experts who built up a detailed picture of his online activity that was revealed in court.

He used his computers at work and at home on an almost daily basis to keep up with developments in the case, studying websites showing how quickly bodies decompose. He even watched a time-lapse video of a rotting corpse, the court heard. He searched Google maps to look at the site where he dumped the body.

In an apparent attempt to ensure any incriminating evidence he had thrown away would be destroyed before police got to it, he checked on bin collections in his area. One of Miss Yeates’s socks has never been found and mystery still surrounds what happened to the missing Tesco Finest pizza she bought.

The court heard how Tabak regularly checked weather sites at a time when snow would help cover evidence of his crime.

Despite his vast knowledge, he could not hide his internet activity from police IT experts

He also trawled the internet for details on prison sentences for murder and manslaughter.

And he even searched for details of CCTV cameras in his street and to find how many Renault Meganes, like his own, were in the UK.

Email exchanges between Tabak and his girlfriend were revealed in court in which he kept up a pretence of not knowing about the killing.

In one, Tabak described the case as “creepy”. And in another he wrote: “The whole situation is very mysterious.